ALLIANCE COMMUNICATIONS AND BLT PRODUCTIONS
INVITE YOU TO WITNESS THE FUTURE OF ANIMATION

THE WORLD'S FIRST 100% COMPUTER GENERATED
WEEKLY ANIMATION SERIES

January 11, 1995

ReBoot is a television first - a half-hour series produced entirely by
computer - using CGI (computer generated imagery) technology and 3D
animation. Never before in the history of television has such an ambitious
task been undertaken. An never before have you seen a television show quite
like ReBoot.

ReBoot made its television debut in September 1994. The show airs Saturdays
at 9:30 AM (ET/PT) on ABC where it has been the strongest performer in their
Saturday morning line-up since its premiere. ReBoot has a huge following in
Canada as well, where it airs on YTV Wednesday evenings at 7:30 PM (ET).
ReBoot started building a large and loyal audience throughout the United
Kingdom in January 1995 and more than 20 television networks around the
world are preparing to launch the series. A world-wide licensing program is
in place and ReBoot merchandise will start to appear on retail
outlets in Spring 1995.

"ReBoot is Alliance's first venture into animation, a strategic growth area
we had previously targeted," said Gord Haines, Chief Operating Officer of
Alliance of ReBoot. "We've also been keeping an eye on the expanding role
of computer technology and its possible application for the entertainment
industry. I'd say ReBoot is a very good introduction to both media."

Christoper Brough, President of BLT agrees. "We're breaking new ground with
this show - both in television programming an computer technology. From the
reaction of the young - and not so young - fans across North America and the
UK, we're confident ReBoot will be a big hit with viewers of all ages the
world over."

The series takes viewers into a magical electrical world inside a personal
computer - to the multi-level city of Mainframe populated by sprites, and
eclectic mixture of digital information in the forms of robotic-looking
binomes and human-like data sprites.

Their urban electronic environment is controlled by an unseen character, The
User, the operator of the computer in which Mainframe is located. When The
User decides to play a computer game, and ominous cube descends upon
Mainframe and engulfs a sector of the city. The Games can strike anywhere,
at any time. When trapped inside The Game, the sprites can "Reboot" to
transform themselves into game characters or equip themselves with the
appropriate game gear to compete with The User. Anything is possible inside
The Game. A sprite can find himself behind the controls of a screaming
jetfighter, burning up the track in a Formula One car, or going one-on-one
with the NBA All-Stars.

The central character is Bob, who recently modemed in from the Super
Computer. Bob can usually be found in the company of an attractive
entrepreneur, Dot, an her energetic little brother, Enzo, at Dot's Diner.
Being a Guardian Program from the advanced civilization of the Super
Computer, Bob is a local hero and Enzo's mentor. Bob is a master of the
Games and with the use of Glitch, a multi-functional gizmo he wears on his
wrist, Bob fight to protect Mainframe from any electronic threat - in
particular the wicked schemes of two computer viruses: the eloquent and
malevolent Megabyte, programmed to take control of the computer, and
Hexadecimal, a digital medusa with masks, programmed to create chaos from
her lair on the bizarre floating city of Lost Angles.

ReBoot was created 10 years ago (1980) by a
creative collective known a The Hub: John Grace, Ian Pearson, Gavin
Blair, and Phil Mitchell. Although John chose to remain in England to
work on other projects, Ian, Gavin and Phil made the move to Vancouver
to ensure that ReBoot became a televised reality.
Ian and Gavin created the first CGI characters ever seen by most
television audiences for the music video Money For
Nothing by Dire Straits. Phil is best know for his
award-winning commercials. All three are respected the world over for
their artistic and technological contributions to the emerging
phenomenon of computer animation.

In a strange twist of technology imitating art imitating life, ReBoot was
originally set inside a computer because of the limitations of computer
animation software at the time. Ian Pearson, co-creator and Executive
Creative Consultant of ReBoot explains, "When we first discussed creating a
series that was entirely animated by computer 10 years ago, the technology
as in its infancy. We decided to set the characters inside of a computer so
that they could get away with looking "blocky" and moving with a mechanical
motion."

Ironically, it is the realistic three-dimensional quality of ReBoot's
computer-generated characters that make its animation unique. The member's
of ReBoot's cast behave, move and speak like actors in any television show.
But ReBoot's characters exist only as digital information - complex
mathematical equations that imitate life. Like the concept of the show,
until the digital information is transferred to tape, ReBoot's characters
and the city of Mainframe exist only inside of a computer and it all comes
to life when the members of the crew boot up their machines at the studio.

ReBoot's astounding graphics are created on SGI Silicon Graphics hardware
using Softimage, the revolutionary software that brought the dinosaurs back
from extinction in Jurassic Park. As the show was being developed, the
software was customized in-house to emulate very natural facial expressions,
hand movements and lip synchronization.

Because the computer programs required to execute the animation were being
developed and written during their production, the initial episodes of
ReBoot required 18 months to complete. Now that these programs are up and
running, the studio can create two episodes within a six-week period -
generating up to two minutes of completed animation per day - an
unprecedented achievement.

Producer Christopher Brough has watched the project, the technology and the
characters develop and grow for four years. "One of our greatest
accomplishments is that we managed to combine cutting edge technology and
the age-old art of story telling. ReBoot delivers what you would expect
from a computer - the astounding action sequences as seen from inside a
computer game - with scenes of drama, humour and even a little tenderness,
which you wouldn't generally associate with a product generated by machine."

"When people here the term "computer-generated animation", they tend to
think that the computer somehow does the work. A computer is simply a tool
for an animator. ReBoot is made by people - for people." says Phil
Mitchell, Co-creator and Supervising Animator. "The human qualities
exhibited by the characters and inherent in the storylines reflect the
contributions of everyone involved in ReBoot."

ReBoot's scripts are deftly written to be easily understood by children,
with a wink and a nod to the adult viewers. The citizens of Mainframe speak
in a high tech dialect that incorporates computer terms that have crept into
the everyday language of the automated age. Bob complains when a task is
not his 'function'. Enzo is encouraged to 'cut and paste' the truth. When
Enzo gets discouraged, Dot counsels him not to 'quit file' so easily.

ReBoot is the only animation series that is produced entirely in one
location; a dedicated CGI facility in Vancouver, British Columbia where a
crew of more than 30 talented animators busy themselves with the enormous
task of delivering 23 half-hours - more than 600 minutes - of CGI to the
world. The sheer volume of 3D animation used in ReBoot is unprecedented.
No one has ever attempted to produce more than the short snippets of CGI
used to create special effects in commercials, television programs and
feature films that fade out in just a few seconds.

When asked about specific challenges encountered in doing a weekly series
completely in CGI, Brough replied, "It's rendering. It's getting on
enormous volume of animation out of the computer and onto digital tape. And
managing all the data files, which is always a daunting task."

ReBoot is recorded in surround sound, another first for an animated series.
Gavin Blair, co-creator and Supervising Animator explains, "We are using
advanced technology to create animation that looks completely different than
anything that has been seen on television before. The sound had to
complement the visuals and meet the high standards of the animation. So we
decided to use surround sound." It takes about 200 hours to customize the
sound for each episode of ReBoot.

ReBoot is also the world's first 100% digital television series. In the
future, digital technology will be the television industry standard. At the
moment, ReBoot stands alone in this category, which has presented some
special challenges. Because ReBoot differs from any production ever done
before, many people have had to adjust their handling of the show.

For instance, usually for an animation series, the networks would receive
storyboards to approve for content. Because the production of CGI animation
is an entirely paperless process, ReBoot doesn't exist on paper. Instead
the producers submit a 'work tape' of the work in progress: a montage of
partially completed scenes, rough sketches that have been scanned in to
suggest what the action sequences will look like.

Unlike other television shows, there are not 8 x 10 glossies of the stars to
hand out to eager fans and media - just printouts from the computer. While
industries around the globe struggle with the challenge of digitizing their
material, ReBoot's digital files had to be converted to traditional media in
order to create publicity materials and merchandising artwork that could be
handled universally.

Such an ambitious undertaking requires the marriage of both creative and
business minds, which led to Alliance's involvement in ReBoot. As
co-producer of ReBoot, Alliance brings to the project their business acumen,
solid entertainment industry relationships world-wide and valuable
production experience.

ReBoot is not their only television first this year. Alliance's Due
South which airs Thursdays at 8 PM on CBS and CTV is the first
Canadian-originated series to air in prime time on a US network.

The leading entertainment company in Canada, and one of the largest
independents in the world, Alliance produces, distributes and finances
feature films and television programs in all media throughout the world.

ReBoot is an Alliance/BLT Production. ReBoot is produced by Christopher
Brough and directed by Richard Zondag. Co-creator Ian Pearson is Executive
Creative Consultant. Executive Producers are Stephane Reichel and Steve
Barron.